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Rocking Two Camera Bodies

This month’s featured Spider Ambassador, Stephanie de Jager, tells us how the SpiderPro Dual Camera System is ideal for rocking two camera bodies at wedding and engagement shoots!

Even though I have two zoom lenses (you can guess what – a 24-70mm is not in my kit), I really do love using prime lenses.They’resharp, lighter, produce overall better quality images and can go wider than f/2.8 (that to me is a necessity).But having only one focal length when shooting a wedding is quite a drawback.Therefore I prefer shooting with two camera bodies – this makes the SpiderPro Dual Camera System ideal.I have diversity on my hips and do not worry about my cameras swinging against each other or hitting any other objects.If you love primes, the SpiderPro Dual Camera System is essential and the best investment.Do yourself a favor and add this to your kit.

Below are a few examples where I took shots moments after each other with different bodies and focal lengths.

With this couple session, we could only shoot when the sun was still high as the gates for the dunes closed early. The wind was blowing like crazy and it was quite a walk in loose sand with a lot of gear to get to a perfect spot and we had to be back at the gates before closing time. When we finally reached the spot we set up the Elinchrom Quadra Ranger with Portalite Octabox on a monopod and my assistant/husband was holding onto it for dear life in the strong wind. The Quadra was lifted up in the air on the right-hand side of the camera and tilted a bit down and triggered with EL-Skyport transmitter to lit the couple. The landscape was taken with my D750 and

14-24mm on 16mm, f/10, ISO100 and 1/200sec. After getting a few landscape shots with the wide angle, I did a few close ups with the 85mm. I was so happy for the two bodies and diversity in focal lengths, because it might have been disastrous trying to do a lens change in that gusting wind.

This was just an amazing moment. I was doing a shot where mum and sister covered the bride with the veil, when the flower girl came running up in awe of what was happening. The symbolism of this shot is just wonderful – the innocence of the bride being covered with the veil and the innocence of a child. I was happy that I could capture the whole image with the 35mm and a close up with the 50mm. You know, children do not stand still for a moment and almost never listen when you want to pose them, so when you get a moment like this, you have to be ready to shoot. There would not have been time for a lens change.

Even while shooting details, using a 50mm and 35mm creates a nice diversity. I normally use the 35mm for close up details, because of its magnification and have the 50mm at hand for candid getting ready shots, but here, I actually used both to take shots of the dress.

The following two photos were also taken with the 50mm and 35mm combo getting a close up and a “bigger picture” image of almost the same moment. I did move a little with my feet though. Whenever shooting, I try my best to get a shot showing the bigger picture, as well as a close up, more intimate moment. I feel it tells the story better and you have diversity in the product you deliver to your client. Sometimes the ceremonies are in very dark chapels and I don’t want to use artificial light during the service, because it can be very distracting. The prime lenses perform much better in the low light situations.

For the confetti shots, using a 50mm on the one and a 14-24mm on the other camera body works so well. Just look at the two photos taken moments after each other.

With Wayde and Chesney’s wedding the program ran a bit late and we literally had just 10 minutes for couple photos. To make things even worse, Wayde was in pain and moving slowly and it was not possible to do a lot of locations and thus we needed to make the best with what we had. Using two different focal lengths gives diversity. Here the 85mm and 50mm were used.

Here I used the 14-24mm and 50mm. I mostly do close ups with my 85mm, but already got my usuals and wanted to do something else at this location. The week building up to this wedding, I envisioned this close up top down shot with the wide angle giving the impression of this vast field of canolas.I am so happy with the outcome of this shot. It’s always such an amazing feeling when you get the shot you planned and visualized. This was taken on f/2.8 and 20mm.I did crop the photo a bit though, as the bride did not want to stand in the canola fields and make her dress dirty and with the angle, there was a bit too much foreground in the photo, with the canolas decreasing or fading a bit.So happy we had time for this location as it was a bit of a drive from the venue.The other two photos were taken with the 50mm, capturing what was seen with the naked eye.The 50mm captured more of the background than what the 85mm would have done.

One of the first things I have learnt about wedding photography is that time is of the essence. The couple shoot is usually very rushed for time and you have to make the most of what you have available. Therefore I love to create diversity of the same shot with composition, focal lengths and distance from subject. With the photos below, the landscape was taken with the 50mm and the two portraits with the 85mm.

Lastly, when a couple opens the dance floor, I like to capture the whole scene, as well as a few intimate moments. Using two cameras with different focal lengths just gives me an amazing variety. Here I used the 14-24mm and 50mm combo to get a variety of close ups and capturing the full picture.

To conclude, the SpiderPro Dual Camera System is absolutely amazing! It makes shooting with two camera bodies a breeze and I can’t imagine shooting a wedding without it anymore. If it wasn’t for this system I would not have been able to deliver such a diverse product to my clients and I am so thankful for it.